  | The URI Women’s Center | ||||||||||||||
 The Women’s Center is a place where all University women—students, faculty, and staff—can go for education, support, referrals, and crisis intervention. The issues and activities that brought women together at URI from the beginning continue to bring us together today: celebrations of art, music, and sport; issues of health and safety, politics, racism and sexism, equity, careers, leadership; and intellectual exchange. Our newly renovated 9,000-square-foot home has brought some exciting changes to the URI Women’s Center. In addition to providing a gathering space for all University women, the Women’s Center can now provide housing for 30 science and technology majors. Living and learning together as part of the Women in Science and Technology Program (WIST), students have a unique opportunity to form a community based on similar interests, connect with faculty, find career mentors, and work towards common goals. Other additions to the URI Women’s Center include a sunny reading room and library where visitors can relax by the fireplace or browse the shelves of our book collection. A kitchen and dining room on our lower level provide meals to resident students and guests. Our downstairs lounge provides more space for group activities or relaxation. Offices for staff are located on the first floor, along with a “safe space” where victims of sexual assault can go for counseling and help. Our accomplishments don’t end with our beautiful new building. In October 2000, the U.S. Department of Justice awarded the Women’s Center with a prestigious grant to prevent violence against women. Thanks to this support, the Violence Prevention Program has been able to reach over 6,000 members of the URI community each year with educational programs on sexual assault, dating violence, stalking, date rape, drugs, and other issues of victimization. In April 2002, the Women’s Center established the Rose Butler Browne Mentoring and Leadership Program. Named for Rose Butler Browne (above), who became the first African American woman to graduate from the University in 1921, the program provides women of color with upper class mentors for academic guidance and insight into campus life. Women at URI have a proud history and many accomplishments to celebrate. When Helen Clarke Leavitt (above) became URI’s first female graduate in 1894, she was the only woman in a class of 17. Today women make up 60 percent of the student body. Much has changed since those early days, but many of the issues and challenges that have faced women through the generations remain the same today. Opportunities to support the Women’s Center today are numerous: sponsoring lecture series and workshops; offering career mentoring and academic advisement; or providing financial assistance for ongoing programs, services, and student scholarships.
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